WaPo Obtains Transcripts From Trump's First Calls with Mexico and Australia

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WaPo Obtains Transcripts From Trump's First Calls with Mexico and Australia

Portions of Trump’s strained conversations with Turnbull and Peņa Nieto were reported earlier this year. But the transcripts trace the entire course of those calls from greeting to confrontation to — in the case of Turnbull — abrupt conclusion.

Both calls centered on immigration-related issues with high political stakes for Trump, who built his campaign around vows to erect new barriers — physical and legal — to entry to the United States.

But there was little discussion of the substance of those plans or their implications for U.S. relations with Australia and Mexico. Instead, Trump’s overriding concern seemed to center on how any approach would reflect on him.

Snippets from the Australia call:

The Jan. 28 call with Turnbull became particularly acrimonious. “I have had it,” Trump erupted after the two argued about an agreement on refugees. “I have been making these calls all day, and this is the most unpleasant call all day.”

Before ending the call, Trump noted that at least one of his conversations that day had gone far more smoothly. “Putin was a pleasant call,” Trump said, referring to Russian President Vladi*mir Putin. “This is ridiculous.”

“This is going to kill me,” he said to Turnbull. “I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. And now I am agreeing to take 2,000 people.”

Snippets from the Mexico call:

But in his first White House call with Mexico’s president, Trump described his vow to charge Mexico as a growing political problem, pressuring the Mexican leader to stop saying publicly that his government would never pay.

“You cannot say that to the press,” Trump said repeatedly, according to a transcript of the Jan. 27 call obtained by The Washington Post. Trump made clear that he realized the funding would have to come from other sources but threatened to cut off contact if Mexican President Enrique Peņa Nieto continued to make defiant statements.

The funding “will work out in the formula somehow,” Trump said, adding later that “it will come out in the wash, and that is okay.” But “if you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that.”

He described the wall as “the least important thing we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important.”

Peņa Nieto resisted, saying that Trump’s repeated threats had placed “a very big mark on our back, Mr. President.” He warned that “my position has been and will continue to be very firm, saying that Mexico cannot pay for the wall.”

Trump objected: “But you cannot say that to the press. The press is going to go with that, and I cannot live with that.”

8 years spent rehabilitating our international reputation after Bush destroyed it, and now, apparently, we're racing back to square one.

You mean 8 years of being a submissive cuck under Obama, bowing to dictators and other foreign leaders, trying to "mend" our relationship with Venezuela only for Chavez a few years later to attack Obama by saying Obama somehow gave him cancer. Oh, and a few years after that for Venezuela to turn to total shit? Yeah, instead of standing up to thugs like Chavez like the US usually does, we legitimized his leadership and now millions are suffering.

His comments about Mexico are especially funny in light of the fact that he continued to publicly stress that they would never, ever, ever, be paying for Trump's nonsensical wall.

Threatening to cut off diplomatic ties with our 3rd largest trading partner because he wouldn't agree to coordinate his administration's stance based on a campaign talking point designed to cater to the most wildly deluded and ignorant right-wing?

His comments about Mexico are especially funny in light of the fact that he continued to publicly stress that they would never, ever, ever, be paying for Trump's nonsensical wall.

Threatening to cut off diplomatic ties with our 3rd largest trading partner because he wouldn't agree to coordinate his administration's stance based on a campaign talking point designed to cater to the most wildly deluded and ignorant right-wing?

His comments about Mexico are especially funny in light of the fact that he continued to publicly stress that they would never, ever, ever, be paying for Trump's nonsensical wall.

Threatening to cut off diplomatic ties with our 3rd largest trading partner because he wouldn't agree to coordinate his administration's stance based on a campaign talking point designed to cater to the most wildly deluded and ignorant right-wing?